Nikolay Strakhov

Nikolai Nikolayevich Strakhov (Russian: Николай Николаевич Страхов; born October 16, 1828 in Belgorod, † January 24, 1896 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian philosopher, publicist and literary critic. Together with Nikolai Danilevsky and Konstantin Leontiev, he was one of the main representatives of the Potschwennitschestwo movement, a grouping within the Slavophiles of the 19th century, which would avert the Europeanization of Russia, some Western concepts - particularly the freedom and the value of the individual - to integrate but attempted. Strakhov was close to a few years Fyodor Dostoevsky and later became a longtime friend of Leo Tolstoy.

Life and work

Strakhov was the son of an Orthodox priest and received his education first at the seminary. He then studied at the State University of Saint Petersburg mathematics and science.

In the 1850s, Strakhov published in the journal torch number of highly regarded products, including the letters on life and a review of Pyotr Lavrov studies on the question of practical philosophy.

1860 dedicated Dostoevsky him, together with Apollon Grigoriev, as the main authors of its new monthly magazine Vremya. This activity marked the beginning of his career as a journalist and literary critic. Strakhov was an apologist of philosophical idealism, especially Hegel. He was the leading ideologue of the Potschwenniki who propagated a "return to earth" and a holistic view of the world represented, form an organic whole from nature and society.

1869-1870 Strakhov published in the journal Rassvet a three-part review of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, and came in contact with the author about it. A long-standing correspondence arose from it.